Scripture – Isaiah 40 RSV
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever.
Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has instructed him? Whom did he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the isles like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? The idol! a workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains. He who is impoverished chooses for an offering wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skilful craftsman to set up an image that will not move.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hid from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Bob’s thoughts:
It is always a disappointing start to Sunday worship when you plan to visit a particular church and show up at the time posted on their website only to find nobody there or a potential later start time on the door. Yesterday there were multiple signs indicating different start times. When you confirm via the church’s website first, it makes it more frustrating.
After driving around, we ended up at Oak Hill Alliance in Cranberry. I noticed a box of tomatoes in a box by the door, something I loved to do when I gardened. But what caught my eye as we drove by was bright blue, so I was relieved to see they were just bags provided to take vegetables home. I couldn’t think what fruit or vegetable could be that bright of a blue.
I was pleased to find a cross both outside and inside and to see the praise team pray before the service. I appreciated the gentleman who not only greeted (as many did) but told us where to find the restroom and coffee.
The message, Strength for Today, centered on power is not in your own strength. I had a lot of trouble with some of the explanations, that a lot of super human acts were not of God, not “enduement.” It seemed that credit was given to adrenaline to lift a car off a trapped person or carry an injured person a mile out of the forest.
I have done things beyond my capabilities, it is a basic Marine nature, and never thought of it as Christ’s assistance. Our firstborn son fell down our front steps at a year or two old. I was sitting more than 20 feet away in our living room when he fell, and I came across the room and down the stairs and caught my son on the way down. Some years later, one of our twins fell down the attic steps, and from the same area of the living room and across a bedroom, I caught her before the cast iron radiator at the bottom of the steps did. Sounds impressive, but I couldn’t move that fast. Nobody could have. No one can ever convince me that this was not God’s intervention in my life, even before He claimed me. There have been numerous times since where I got through on God’s strength.
The message was hard to follow and the sermon note sheet was little help; it may have been easier with a printed copy.
I have a file where I keep prayer requests from churches we visit and when adding this week’s, I found the prayer page from our last visit in October 2016.
I pray for many people, and after a fall in the recovery room, I have suffered severe pain for five months. Last week my wife asked if I had prayed for myself (I didn’t think of it), and the next day I was mostly pain free, walking without my cane, climbing stairs almost like a normal person. Thanks be to God.
Jan’s thoughts:
We first aimed to attend another church, but when we arrived for worship at the time specified on the website, we found signs in the yard indicating worship would be an hour later. Since we were more than half an hour early for the incorrect (early) time, we interpreted this as God’s redirection. Long story short, we drove quite a while and landed at this church which we knew we had not visited for a while.
The people were as friendly as I remembered, and we appreciated the many introductions and conversations before, during, and after worship.
I always smile when I spot the worship leaders praying together before the service.
The pulpit was filled by Rev. Jim Ailes, a hospice chaplain and member of the board of this church, and the message was called Strength for Today. He began by comparing fact and promise, stating a fact is a truth that is true, accepted, and believed, whereas a promise is a truth to be claimed and received.
I disagreed with his assertion that unnatural strength was different than supernatural strength, since where would unnatural strength come from if not from God? But his statement that our human strength and stamina will fail us sooner or later cannot be disputed.
The principle that God knows where we need to be and is able to place us there at exactly the right time is something He has proven to us week after week, with yesterday being the most recent example.
Our prayer for this church:
Father, may Christ’s church be a beacon on the hill and a rock for their community. Amen.
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